


Phoenix

by reason_says



Category: World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: F/M, Kayfabe Compliant, M/M, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, Sort Of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-07
Updated: 2019-02-07
Packaged: 2019-10-23 20:02:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17689976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reason_says/pseuds/reason_says
Summary: There’s a fire burning inside Candice, and she isn’t sure she wants to extinguish it.





	Phoenix

**Author's Note:**

  * For [smarky](https://archiveofourown.org/users/smarky/gifts).



There’s a fire burning inside Candice, and she isn’t sure she wants to extinguish it. There’s nothing she can  _ do _ with it, not yet, but it’s burning nonetheless, lighting her from within, driving her on. It hurts, sometimes, and she wishes she had an outlet, but she knows enduring it is making her stronger. Purifying her, burning away everything that isn’t resolved. Everything that isn’t ready. She’s prepared for whatever comes, any enemy who thinks they can overpower her. Sometimes she thinks she was the first to fall in her own path, her inhibitions and unease defeated in the glare of the inferno within her, but there are better targets.

The only time the fire is banked is when she talks to Johnny, whose own flame is only embers at this point. It’s been so long, and they’re both so tired. Johnny’s tired of fighting, Candice is tired of watching. Tired of  _ not _ fighting, honestly, of being a bystander trying to keep her husband from giving in. Tired of keeping herself from giving in. Sometimes it’s hard to remember what the threat actually is, because it seems like ‘success’ is the concept they’re fighting when they don’t have actual opponents, and why fight success? Why keep yourself from victory?

Johnny used to burn, righteous and strong with a pure blue flame, but that fury has left him and now his anger is focused more on himself than on anyone else. He still lashes out against other people, but they’re surface burns, byproducts of his inner flame rather than direct attacks. He’s so tired, he’s burning out, unable to resist, and he wonders if resisting is what’s killing him. If he gave up, if he leapt, would his fire catch in the wind? Would he roar back to life, the bonfire he used to be, focused and bright with certainty?

It’s worth a shot. If he dies that way, he’ll die this way too, and he’d rather take the chance to flare than let himself fade away.

So he leaps. So he falls. He stops fighting gravity’s call, rushing downward, picking up tactics he never would have considered, picking up victories, and he feels the sparks of joy lick into flames in his heart. He knows what he can do. He knows how to do it. He’d resisted for so long, but this new flame is different, stronger, and can burn anyone who tries to stop him. It’s not just  _ his _ flame anymore, it’s for everyone who gets in his way. Every opponent, every manager, every fan with a sign that insults him… everyone who interferes in the story he’s writing. The story being written about him.

Tommaso stands in the shadows, writing his own story, letting his fire turn the pages and inscribe the words. The story he’s writing has a hero at the end of it, but he isn’t sure yet whether Johnny is right that it’s him. He’ll have to see how far he can take this, how close he’s willing to come to total conflagration. He’s worked long enough, hard enough, to kindle this fire within them, and he’ll work as long as it takes to see them through to the end.

When Johnny leaps, when he is reborn from his own ashes, Candice fears for him, but knows she has to trust his flight. Her fire pushes her on, hotter and hotter and stronger and fiercer and meaner, more determined to make her way regardless of the obstacles in her path, and when Johnny flies back up to meet her she greets him joyfully, jealous of his wings but knowing hers will lift her in time. When her fire wins matches, when it leaves opponents gasping for air, when it gets her greater opportunities, she knows her wings will come.

As the temperature around them rises, as they rejoice in their fire and share it with one another, Tommaso’s flames lick up around them and they are not burned. His fire feeds theirs, though it’s colder, and older, and more determined than even their new selves know how to be. He knows how to direct it so that others do his bidding, whether to dodge or to embrace, they’re never sure. They’ve both been burned by his outbursts, his schemes, but the scars left behind are pathways to guide them home, back to each other and to him, and although it’s taken too long, they finally understand that.

Tongues of fire touch their eyes, and they can see. Touch their mouths, and they can speak. They know that his fire has always been the basis of theirs, burning low while they were unaware of their own potential, while they were still joined and outwardly calm. In conflict their possibilities have grown, in hatred their opportunities have multiplied, and when he reaches out to them they know their fire has been joined to his since the beginning. Tired of fighting, tired of waiting, they rest in him.

Three fires, one flame. When they’re reunited, no one is prepared to stand in their way. Johnny and Candice and Tommaso have each other’s backs for every match, for every parking lot scuffle, for every contract negotiation, and if that gets them enemies, it’s unsurprising people would be jealous of their bond. This drive, this fire, this potential isn’t for everyone, and they’re lucky to have found each other, they all know this. Tommaso especially knows, because without them, his fire - old and cold as it is - would dwindle into nothingness. They save him every day, using his tactics and accepting his words, keeping him alive in their minds and their hearts. He loves them so fiercely that he sometimes thinks they might be his source, rather than he theirs, but it’s pointless to speculate which heart flared up first.

They win, and win, and win, they burn and are reborn and burn again, and the fire raging bright around them brings them a heat they never could have imagined.


End file.
